ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the study of political simulations of terrorism as a hyperreality with a historical analysis of the Libyan hit squad scare that haunted the United States over several weeks in 1981. US media and Reagan administration officials warned of an imaginary hit squad of terrorists sent to Washington by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to assassinate President Reagan. Through an analysis of a range of declassified documents, mainly from the Reagan Library, most of which are processed here for the first time, the emergence of the rumour, which was planted in the US media through fabricated intelligence documents. The chapter traced to a small group of officials within the Reagan administration who tried to gain public support for the US government's policy towards Libya. The Libyan hit squad scare is analysed as hyperreality generated by a simulation on which it was contingent and that preceded it.
